Christ’s Resurrection – true hope for the world

By Leela Ramdeen, Chair, CCSJ, & Director, CREDI

Christ is risen, Alleluia! The blogger, Phil Newton, wrote: ‘9 ways Christ’s Resurrection gives us hope for today.’ Numbers 5 and 9 read: “The bodily resurrection motivates us to holy living. Fixing our hope on the future in Christ builds a deeper desire for pure, holy lives (1 John 3:1–3; 1 Cor 15:33–34, 58).”

“The bodily resurrection affirms that our toil and labour in this life are not in vain. Why grow weary in serving Christ in the present when it’s just good preparation for the future of eternal service? ‘Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord’ (1 Cor 15:58).”

No matter how our lives twist and turn, we must never get weary of serving the Lord.

Well, as some of you may have heard, I had a right-sided ischemic stroke, but God was merciful; my speech is fine and although my left side is weak, I can move gingerly with a zimmer frame.

This was certainly a wake-up call for me. I have started immediately to change my lifestyle! No more eating junk food ‘on the go’ and I am embracing an exercise regime that will help me to recover. I can still use my brain, hence this article is possible. Remember me in prayer.

As a follower of Christ, I have great hope based on my faith. And it is my hope in the risen Christ that will strengthen/heal me. And if He calls me now, I am ready because Christ’s resurrection means that I will also be raised to live with Him forever. I thank everyone for their love and prayers.

Remember the words in John 11:25–26: “Jesus said: ‘I am the resurrection. If anyone believes in me, even though he dies he will live and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.”

I thank God that two of my sisters, Kamala and Kamini, are here in T&T to assist me. They were supposed to be in England, but God placed them here at this time for a purpose. I am not alone.

Their presence reminded me of Pope Francis’ words in his Easter Sunday homily last year: “Christ is risen, and with Him, He makes our hope and creativity rise so that we can face our present problems in the knowledge that we are not alone.

“To celebrate Easter is to believe once more that God constantly breaks into our personal histories, challenging our ‘conventions’, those fixed ways of thinking and acting that end up paralysing us. To celebrate Easter is to allow Jesus to triumph over the craven fear that so often assails us and tries to bury every kind of hope.

“The stone before the tomb shared in this, the women of the Gospel shared in this, and now the invitation is addressed once more to you and to me. An invitation to break out of our routines and to renew our lives, our decisions, and our existence.

“An invitation that must be directed to where we stand, what we are doing and what we are, with the ‘power ratio’ that is ours. Do we want to share in this message of life or do we prefer simply to continue standing speechless before events as they happen?”

I prefer to share in the message of life, and to call on His name, as the singer, Carol King sang in her 1971 song: ‘You’ve got a friend’: “If the sky above you/Grows dark and full of clouds/And that old North wind begins to blow/Keep your head together/And call my name out loud/Soon you’ll hear me knocking at your door.”

May the risen Christ keep knocking at our door, even when we forget to knock on His door! Happy Easter, my brothers and sisters.